CLEANSE AND PURIFY: THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM Table of Contents: A KEY TO GREAT HEALTH: ORGANIC ELECTROLYTES THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM AND MUCOID PLAQUE BENEFITS OF COMPLETE INTESTINAL CLEANSING See also: Liver/Gallbladder Osteoporosis Colon Cancer Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Stomach Ulcers Seven Stages of Disease Books: Conscious Eating, Chapter 11, “Acid-Base Balance, A Basic Key to Health,” by Gabriel Cousens, M.D. Articles: Websites: www.cleanse.net Audio/Video: Publications: Organizations: People: Dr. Bernard Jensen Dr. John Harvey Kellogg Dr. Robert Gray Dr. V.E. Irons Integral Nutrition: Juice Feasting Celery Juice (organic sodium) Hydrated Bentonite Clay pH tests: urine, saliva, blood CLEANSE – REBUILD – REHYDRATE - ALKALIZE Printed: September 14, 2011 www.JuiceFeasting.com Cleanse and Purify: The Human Digestive System 1 Conventional: Terms: Organic sodium Chyme pH Acid-Forming Foods Alkaline-Forming Foods Pepsinogen Enzymes Mucin Mucoid Plaque Diverticulitis Intestinal Flora Villi and Microvilli Peristalsis Bifidobacterium Infantis Lactobacillus acidophilus Printed: September 14, 2011 www.JuiceFeasting.com Cleanse and Purify: The Human Digestive System 2 A GREAT KEY TO HEALTH: ORGANIC ELECTROLYTES Source: Cleanse and Purify Thyself by Richard Anderson, N.D., N.M.D. Man does not die; he kills himself. - Seneca Vitality and beauty are gifts of nature for those who live according to its laws. - Leonardo da Vinci Following breathing, and the heart beating, the next most important physiological function our bodies perform is the maintaining of a balanced pH.1 Regulation of pH is essential because every enzyme system, cell, organ, and gland in the body is influenced by pH. Excluding accidents and genetic weakness, dis-ease often begins to occur after we have altered our normal pH balance and become deficient in minerals, especially organic electrolyte minerals2—not minerals from rock, but minerals from organic matter (plants).3 Even when a slight depletion of any of the electrolytes occurs, many of our organs and glands become seriously challenged, weakened, toxic, and sluggish, for only slight changes in pH from normal levels can cause extreme alterations in the rates of chemical reactions—inside and outside of our cells. Any depletion means that health is plummeting and healing is significantly inhibited until the depletion has been rectified. Depletion also means that acids are accumulating. And acids are harmful to the body. When people become too over-acid they may die in a coma, and when they become too over-alkaline they could die of tetany or convulsions. At a certain point between the two, we have health, but if the pH of our blood, of any organ, or of any cell moves toward one of these extremes, dysfunction and dis-ease are always the result. Key Points to Digestion When we eat, we chew the food and it goes into the stomach. Here it is saturated by hydrochloric acid (HCl). HCl has an extreme acid pH of .5 (point 5). This is the only place in the body that needs to be acid. This low pH activates pepsinogen enzymes, which are essential for efficient digestion of protein. After the stomach has completed its digestive phase, it releases the chyme through the pyloric valve. (Chyme is a mixture of food, stomach acids, and enzymes.) The food (chyme) is now highly acidic, and as it enters the duodenum, it is saturated by large amounts of alkaline fluids from the Brunner glands, bile, and pancreatic juices. To maintain good health, it is absolutely essential that our intestines maintain an alkaline environment, for the pancreatic and other 22 intestinal enzymes can only function optimally at a pH above 7. Not only that, before the body can absorb the food into the bloodstream and use it, it must bring the food up to a pH of 7.4, for the blood always maintains a 7.4 pH. Physiological Control of pH Our bodies have several incredible control mechanisms to assure pH control. One process is called the buffer system. By eliminating complex explanations, we can say that the first step is for the body to buffer the acids by absorbing the acid with the electrolyte organic sodium and bicarbonate. Each time an acid is buffered by the sodium, the pH rises. In this process the body brings the acids to a level in which it can safely remove them from the body through the kidneys and control pH. But each time an electrolyte is used to buffer acids, the electrolyte is removed—lost forever. 1 pH is the symbol for “potential hydrogen” and is used with a number to indicate levels of acidity or alkalinity. The greater the amount of hydrogen atoms, the stronger the acid, and the lower the pH number. Anything from a 0 to 7 indicates acidity. The more diminished the amount of hydrogen atoms, the more increased the alkalinity, and, the higher the number. 2 Sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, lithium, and phosphorus are the main electrolytes that the body uses. 3 The body cannot effectively use rock minerals. It must use the minerals that have passed through the plant kingdom. Minerals from the plant kingdom have been chelated to a protein molecule through the magic of photosynthesis. Printed: September 14, 2011 www.JuiceFeasting.com Cleanse and Purify: The Human Digestive System 3 The more acids we consume, especially from acid-forming foods, the greater the potential of an electrolyte deficiency. A key to good health is to eat enough food that has a greater amount of electrolytes than acids—alkaline forming food. For when we eat too much acid-forming food, we drain our bank account of electrolytes. We can also become electrolyte- deficient from emotional stress. Whether we lose electrolytes via stress or from acid-forming foods matters not; once our electrolyte storehouse is depleted, declining health is inevitable and one more problem after another develops. And too much depletion means death, for our bodies cannot live without adequate electrolytes. Diagram from: Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens, M.D. A Missing Key in Overcoming Illness With this understanding, it becomes obvious that the most important factor in treating any dis-ease is to supply the body with organic electrolyte minerals that it lacks and that it unequivocally needs for regeneration. Without a full supply of electrolytes, our bodies cannot maintain themselves, much less heal themselves. And yet 99% of doctors never give it a thought; and even if they did, only a few have the understanding necessary to correct this serious dis-ease threatening profile. This medical neglect has caused the premature death of millions of people and perpetuated the dis- ease and suffering of many millions more. It also perpetuates the medical industry and helps reduce the overpopulation of the world. So maybe there is a reason for this abject neglect. Most people in America have already lost this delicate health-essential balance and are moving first towards over-acidity and then on to alkalinity. Both over-acidity and over-alkalinity are due to lack of electrolytes, particularly organic sodium, Printed: September 14, 2011 www.JuiceFeasting.com Cleanse and Purify: The Human Digestive System 4 and never because of an over-abundance of electrolytes.4 Another important point is that long before anyone nears death’s door because of an electrolyte deficiency, that person usually has contracted various dis-ease conditions, which most people are totally unaware of until the malady has progressed into pain, tiredness, or some other symptom. The Difference Between Alkaline-forming and Acid-forming Foods Alkaline-forming foods contain an abundance of the electrolytes needed to buffer acids in the food, and help build the body’s reserve. Acid-forming foods do not. Acid-forming food forces the body to retrieve the buffering electrolytes from its own reserve. The same thing occurs with stress. Stress creates acids, and stress has no electrolytes at all. Both acid-forming food and stress cause a deficit in the body’s reserve, which is needed for exercise, thinking, coping with illness, and healing. Organic Sodium You may wonder how Americans become deficient in sodium, for most people add sodium chloride (table salt) to almost every meal they eat. This is vital to understand. Sodium chloride (table salt), cannot be used by the body. Minerals from rock have no protein and are therefore highly caustic and toxic to our bodies. Too much potassium chloride, for example, can kill you. Sodium chloride is so toxic that it can increase blood pressure and is an irritant to cell membranes, and cannot be used efficiently in the buffer system or in our cells. The body can only efficiently use sodium that has been chelated to a protein molecule. Minerals chelated like this are referred to as “organic.” [NOTE: Organic sodium is found in celery—the center of your green vegetable juices!] It is quite obvious to some doctors, although the conventional medical profession has not acknowledged it, that sodium chloride cannot be used in metabolism. This has been proven by clinical studies. One study revealed that when sodium chloride was given to individuals who are prone to hypertension, their blood pressure rose, but when organic sodium was given to these same people, their blood pressure moved towards normal. It was also found that sodium chloride induced the body to lose calcium, whereas organic sodium induced a decrease in calcium loss. An interesting fact arose in this study that completely baffled researchers. Whenever sodium chloride was ingested, the body quickly removed it. However, when organic sodium was given, the body held it. Why? You should by now have the answer, but if you do not, please re-read this chapter. The answer, however, is that the body could not use the sodium chloride because it is toxic and unusable; therefore it discarded it as quickly as possible even though it was deficient in organic sodium.